Machines for forming materials into balls



Oct. 31, 1961 Filed April 27, 1959 T. DE AQUINO MONTEZ 3,006,291 MACHINES FOR FORMING MATERIALS INTO BALLS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 arrow/E) Oct. 31, 1961 T. DE AQUINO MONTEZ MACHINES FOR FORMING MATERIALS INTO BALLS Filed April 27, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent Othce 3,006,291 Patented Oct. 31, 1961 3,006,291 MACHINES FOR FORMING MATERIALS INTO BALLS Tomas De Aquino Montez, 1541 Stone St., Pueblo, Colo. Filed Apr. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 809,193 6 Claims. (Cl. 107-8) This invention relates to a machine for forming materials into balls and while more particularly designed as a meat ball shaper for producing meat balls of uniform size and shape for commercial production in mass volume for restaurants and lunch rooms, it is not limited to this particular use but will be found useful wherever it is desired to shape any tractable material, such as dough, into balls.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a highly efficient machine which will simulate expert hand forming of meat balls, dough balls, and the like so as to rapidly, accurately and efficiently produce balls similar to and of a quality equal to the best hand rolled balls.

Attempts have been made to press meat and similar materials into balls; these attempts have not been satisfactory for with too little material in the mold the resulting ball is imperfect and with too much matereial the ball is so compacted as to be unsatisfactory for use.

Another object of the invention is to provide a meat ball forming machine which will simultaneously combine a plurality of movements to form the completed ball, such as both vertical and horizontal agitation or vibration combined with a side patting action and free rolling movement so that the result will be a substantially perfect, uniform, spherical ball of relatively light compaction regardless of the quantity of the material supplied for each desired ball.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for si-mplicity, economy and efliciency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the impnoved ball forming machine;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view thereof;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary cross section, taken on the line 3-3, FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a similar fragmentary, longitudinal section, taken on the line 44, FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the action of the ball forming machine and the progress of a typical ball therethrough.

The ball forming machine will be described as applied to ground meat for forming conventional meat balls or patties.

The ball forming machine comprises a substantially rectangular, elongated table frame consisting of a front angle iron 10, a rear angle iron 11 and two end angle irons 12 welded or otherwise joined together to form a rectangular table and supported upon suitable vertical supporting legs 13.

The angle irons forming the table frame are faced inwardly so that the lower leg of each angle iron will form a shelf for supporting a fixed table plate 14 of hardened sheet aluminum or similar material. The table plate 14 is secured to the lower legs of the angle irons 10, 11 and 12 by means of suitable :n'vets Or bolts 15.

A slide plate 16 also of hardened sheet aluminum or similar material and subsequently corresponding in length but of lesser width than the table plate 14 overlies and slides transversally upon the latter. The extremities of the slide plate 16 extend beneath guide bars 17 secured, for vertical adjustment, by means of suitable clamp bolts 18 riding in vertically slotted holes 19 in the end angle irons 12. The slotted bolt holes 19 allow the guide bars 17 to be adjusted against, or invertically spaced relation to, the slide plate 16. The guide bars 17 in a typical machine are spaced above the slide plate from A to /s so as to allow a slight vertical vibration of the slide plate 16.

The slide plate 16 is reciprocated transversal-ly of and upon the table plate 14 by means of a connecting rod 20 pivotally extending from a wrist pin 21 in a pivot bracket 22 which is secured beneath the forward edge of the slide plate 16 in any desired manner such as by means of attachment bolts 23. The table plate 16 and the front angle iron 10 are provided with an opening or notch 24 to provide clearance for the connecting rod 20 and the pivot bracket 22.

The forward extremity of the connecting rod 20 is pivotally mounted on a crank pin 25 extending eccentrically from a crank disc 26 mounted on the right extremity of a crank shaft 27. The crank shaft 27 is rotatably mounted in conventional pillow blocks or bearings 28 which are mounted upon suitable supports 46 which are in turn supported from a shelf plate 29 extending forwardly from and at a lower elevation than, the table frame. The forward portion of the shelf 29 is supported upon suitable supporting legs 30.

The crank shaft 27 is driven from an electric motor 31 mounted on a motor platform 32 below the shelf 29 and provided with a V-belt drive pulley 33. A V-belt 34 transmits torque from the drive pulley 33 to a larger V-belt driven pulley 35 which is mounted on the left extremity of the crank shaft 27. In actual practice, the crank shaft 27 is rotated at approximately 275 rpm.

A relatively. low, rectangular, trough support 36, preferably formed from angle iron, is bolted to the slide plate 16 adjacent the right or discharge extremity of the machine by means of suitable attachment bolts 37. A similar but relatively high trough support 38 is similarly bolted to the slide plate 16 adjacent the left or intake extremity of the machine. The table plate 14 contanis two transversally extending cut-out openings 44 to provide clearance for the bolts 37 and their nuts.

In a typical machine, the trough supports 36 and 38 are separated 23" from each other and the low support 36 is 2 /2" high while the high support 38 is 5" high.

A ball rolling trough 39 extends between and across beyond the supports 36 and 38 and is secured thereto in any desired manner such as by means of suitable attachment bolts 40.

In a typical machine the trough 39 has a length of 48 and extends beyond both extremities of the table frame and due to the difference in height between the supports 36 and 38, the trough is supported at an incline toward the discharge extremity of approximately 6.

In cross section, the trough 39 presents a relatively narrow, elongated, flat bottom portion of say 3" width, the edges of which are arcuately curved upwardly in a radius of approximately 1" to form two inclined sides approximately 3" in height having outwardly extending upper edge flanges 41 spaced approximately 5 apart. A flared feed hopper 42, of any desired type, may be removably fitted into the higher extremity of the trough 39 and secured therein by means of wing bolts 43 to facilitate the feeding of material into the higher extremity of the trough.

In use, gobs of ground meat are fed into the hopper 42 and from thence to the upper extremity of the trough. For the purpose of description let us follow one of these gobs as shown diagrammatically in FIG. 5. As soon as the gob strikes the bottom of the trough, the latter will rapidly shift from the solid line position A to the broken line position B. The inertia of the gob will prevent it from completely following the shift. As a result the bottom of the trough-will m'ovebeneath the gob rotating the latter to the left as indicated by the small curvated arrow in FIG. 5, until it is contacted by the side of the trough and slightly rounded. The gob will now roll'down the incline of the trough 39 by gravity while the trough rapidly shifts back to the position A. The shift back movement will now roll the gob in the opposite direction until it contacts the opposite side of the trough to give it general ball contour as indicated at 45. The shifting back and forth of the trough combined with the downward rollingmovement causes the ball to follow a slightly zigzag but generally downward movement between the positions 45 and the broken line positions45' in FIG. until it gradually assumes a perfect spherical shape. In addition to the rolling movement there is a patting action imparted by the contacts of the sides of the trough with the rolling ball and by the slight vertical vibration is imparted to the slide plate 16 and the trough 39 in consequence of the vertical throw of the connecting rod 20. This vertical vibration can be regulated by adjusting the positions of the bolts 18 in the slotted holes 18. However, even with the guide bars 17 in sliding contact with the slide plate, there is still vertical vibration imparted due to the flexibility of the elongated, relatively thin slide plate.

Thus, a complicated combination of forces acts upon the gobs as they travel down the trough to produce perfectly spherical balls of a desired consistency as they discharge at the lower extremity of the trough. The ball travels a comparatively straight path asshown in FIG. 5 while the trough moves through a relatively wide laterally oscillation and as it travels it is subjected to a vibrating rolling action in all directions over its spherical surface and to a pat-ting action similar to hand rolling. It is the combination of all of these forces that produces the efiicient results of the machine.

While the action has been described with reference to a single ball, it is to be understood that in full operation the trough will contain a spaced series of balls throughout its entire length. At full capacity in a typical machine, there would be from 12 to 14 balls beingformed in the trough simultaneously and since it requires from 8 to seconds for a ball to complete the traverse, the machine will produce from 70 to 90 balls per minute.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is to be understood that the same may be varied Within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed and desired secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A machine for forming balls from bulk material comprising: a supporting structure; a trough supporting element mounted on said supporting structure so as to be free to reciprocate transversally of the longitudinal axis of said trough; a longitudinally inclined trough supported by said trough supporting element; a rotary shaft mounted on said structure to one side ofsaid trough and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the latter; a connecting means between said shaft and said trough acting to convert the rotary motion of said shaft into reciprocal movement of said trough transverse to the longitudinal axis of the latter so that material introduced at the higher extremity of said trough will gravitate longitudinally down said trough on a Zig-zag path under the influence of the reciprocal transverse movement of said trough.

2. A machine for forming balls from bulk material as described in claim 1 having a transversally movable and longitudinally immovable slide plate mounted on said supporting structure, said trough element being mounted on said slide plate so that said slide plate will move transversally of the axis of said trough in correspondence with the transverse movement of said trough.

3. A machine for forming balls from bulk material as described in claim 2 having guide members guiding said slide plate in its transverse movement and preventing longitudinal movement thereof, said guide members being vertically spaced from said slide plate to allow a limited degree of vertical movement of said slide plate in consequence of the movement of said crank shaft.

4. A machine for forming balls from bulk material as described in claim 3 having'means for adjusting the spacing of said guide members from said slide plate to vary the degree of vertical movement of said slide plate.

5. A machine for forming balls from bulk material as described in claim 2 having a table plate positioned between said supporting structure and said slide plate, the latter being slidable on the former in a direction at right angles to the axis of said trough.

6. A machine for forming balls from bulk material as described in claim 5 having a flat longitudinally extending bottom in said trough with arcuately upturned side edges and flaring side plates extending upwardly and outwardly from said side edges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,347,164 Petr-illi Apr. 18, 1944 2,442,633 Archer et al. June 1, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,000- France Jan. 29, 1903 (1st addition to 296,355)

22,703 Great Britain 1901 91,066 Norway Feb. 24, 1958 i l l l 

